Page 73 of The Huckleberry Bookshop

She nodded, eyes wide, playing up her role. Darn if she wasn’t the cutest thing he’d ever seen.

“Tell me where he lives,” he growled.

She laughed again, her face awash with joy.

Man, he loved this woman.

“I need you to get Mullens on board.”

Athena looked up from her monitor, where she’d been watching a clip of Chad talking to a reporter. As he chatted, a woman came up, flipping up the hem of her shirt to reveal her tanned, hard midriff. Without missing a beat, Chad had accepted the marker she’d offered and scrawled his name across her stomach as though claiming ownership.

Athena knew this was part of his image, but it made her stomach tighten and roll like it was trying to knot itself. Had the man even considered saying no?

Maybe he enjoyed it. She poked at her own belly through her silk blouse, unimpressed with the way it swallowed her finger.

Some dietician she was.

But it wasn’t just the female fans with lithe bodies throwing themselves at him. That came with the territory, along with the clips they ran of him smiling in selfies with different women, letting the audience believe he’d dated them all. No, it was the following gala clip that had caused her head to start pounding. In the clip he’d been looking handsome, a glass of whiskey in hand, his fitted suit exuding power, his smile filled with devilish charm. He’d been commanding the row of men behind him, also with drinks at the ready.

In the interview, Chad and the reporter had been talking about the upcoming cookbook, and a small square had popped up in the corner of the screen, revealing him on its cover. Meanwhile, the drinks clips rolled in the other corner, negating everything he said about diet and taking care of one’s body.

The dull throbbing in Athena’s temples had increased.

She could argue that the photos and clips were taken out of context, but she’d been there. He’d spilled that apple-infused drink on her. She’d been sticky with it and had tasted its sweetness.

She thought about flipping over to her online cooking channel, but didn’t want to see how far her number of subscribers had plummeted thanks to this dietary scandal.

She choked on a laugh. Dietary scandal. Boy, she sure knew how to do sexy, didn’t she? What did Chad even see in her beyond the challenge?

“Athena?” Coach Louis was still standing in her doorway and she jolted, having completely fallen into her own thoughts about Chad. “We need Mullens on board,” he repeated.

“Right.” They’d talked about this before.

“Have you seen the footage from last month’s gala?” Louis stepped into her office, his sneakers silent on the carpet. “I’ve put Nuvella on it and I have a call in with his agent. For now, we’re planning to lie low and let it blow over, but this could get really nasty on us. Overpaid alcoholics on ice, you know?”

Athena pushed back from her desk and nodded. This current angle could give the team a bit of a black eye, plus tank her cookbook’s pre-order sales, or even have it pulled from publication before it hit the shelves in March. She’d never get a book deal again.

“I believe Chad’s actually on board,” she said tentatively, expecting an argument.

“That’s what he tells me.” He took the chair opposite her desk.

“Well,” Athena said carefully, “how’s his performance on the ice?”

“He’s all over the place.” After a short pause, Louis asked, “Are the two of you dating?”

“I’m sorry?” She blinked, her thoughts spiraling into what-if scenarios. Was she supposed to have told human resources they were sort-of-dating?

Maybe they already were. They kissed like they were. They’d shared a few intimate secrets like they were.

And yet they were both so busy they hadn’t even been on what she’d consider an official date.

“You dated Lonnie from Jersey Storm?” Louis asked. Her face must’ve registered surprise because he leaned back, lifting his hands in the air as though needing to defend himself. “I’m sorry. I know that’s personal. I’m just trying to get to the bottom of his behavior. You know, look at the whole enchilada where Mullens is concerned.”

“And that is a mighty big enchilada.”

He chuckled.

“And yeah, Lonnie and I dated. And Chad and I are…” She sighed, suddenly embarrassed. From Louis’s point of view, her dating the player who gave her the most amount of grief probably appeared as a lapse in judgment. “I don’t know. Interested? Trying? Failing?” She lifted her shoulders in a helpless shrug, hoping she wasn’t blushing.

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